Following Super Bowl XLVI CNN commentator Roland Martin sent off some offensive homophobic tweets that have landed him in a suspended position with the cable news network.
Following the game Roland was tweeting about David Beckham’s underwear commercial when he wrote:
“If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!”
Roland then made a few more homophobic statements, here’s a screen grab of those comments as posted on the commentators personal Twitter account.
In their response to the incident CNN jumped into the conversation:
“Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated.
We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”
Here’s a screen capture of Roland’s tweets:
Following his messages Roland Martin released this apology:
Fam, let me address the issue that some in the LGBT community have raised regarding some of my Super Bowl tweets yesterday.
I made several cracks about soccer as I do all the time. I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham ad, and I’m sorry folks took it otherwise.
It was meant to be a deliberately over the top and sarcastic crack about soccer; I do not advocate violence of any kind against anyone gay, or not. As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, anytime soccer comes up during football season it’s another chance for me to take a playful shot at soccer, nothing more.
The length and terms of his suspension have not been revealed.
